"Stunning debuts of last-minute replacements are often the stuff of legend, such as conductor Leonard Bernstein's debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1943," waxed the Cincinnati Enquirer's critic about Julian Kuerti's debut with the Cincinnati Symphony when he replaced Paavo Järvi in April. "There was clearly chemistry happening onstage, and the musicians performed magnificently for him." Kuerti also jumped in on short notice to open the L.A. Chamber Orchestra's season. "Kahane selected a first-rate conductor to step in for him," noted the Los Angeles Times. Following fall concerts with the symphonies of New Jersey, Toledo, and Chile, the young Canadian conductor now heads to Ottawa to lead the National Arts Center Orchestra (Nov. 18/19). 

 

On the road to the podium, Kuerti earned an honors degree in engineering and physics, was concertmaster in various Canadian orchestras, toured Brazil with a world music band, and spent two summers as a conducting fellow at Tanglewood.  In August, he completed three years as the Boston Symphony's assistant conductor, a tenure that included an unscheduled concert with his father, the famed pianist Anton Kuerti, who substituted in an eleventh-hour cancellation. Read the story in Symphony magazine's Sept/Oct issue.  

 

Season debuts for Julian Kuerti:

• Dec. 4:        Vancouver Symphony, BC:
                      Mozart, Schumann, Rimsky-K, Stravinsky
  
• Jan. 20-22:  Rochester Philharmonic: 
                      Messiaen, Prokofiev, Beethoven
• Jan. 30:       Seattle Symphony:
                      Smetana, Mendelssohn, Dvorak
• Feb. 10-12:  St. Paul Chamber Orchestra:
                      Ravel, Britten, Schoenberg
• Mar. 9:         Orchestre Symphonique de Québec:
                      Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Mahler+
  
• Apr. 9:          New York City Opera:
                       Knussen: Where the Wild Things Are
• Apr. 21-23:   Atlanta Symphony: Mendelssohn,
                       Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Wagner
  

For more information about Julian Kuerti, visit the IMG Artists web site.

 

After the Edinburgh Festival this summer, and before her Brazil debut singing the role of Margarita Xirgu in Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar, soprano Jessica Rivera traveled across Spain in the footsteps of the opera's subject, poet Federico Garcia Lorca. This "research trip" to learn more and deepen her portrayals is just part of what makes Rivera a favorite of today's leading composers, such as Golijov, John Adams, and Nico Muhly. When asked what her art is about, she answers simply, "I want to move people."  And so she does, while collaborating with the likes of conductors Robert Spano, Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sir Simon Rattle. 

 

The young Californian's discography includes Golijov's Grammy Award-winning Ainadamar with the Atlanta Symphony and Le Pasión según Marcos with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (both for Deutsche Grammophon), Poulenc with the Chicago Symphony, Vaughan Williams with Atlanta (Telarc), John Adams's A Flowering Tree with the London Symphony (Nonesuch), and his Doctor Atomic with Netherlands Opera on DVD (BBC/Pro Arte), in which she sings the role of Kitty Oppenheimer. 

Jessica Rivera's season highlights:

• Nov. 23:         Houston Symphony: L. Siegel: Kaddish
• Dec. 3:           San Francisco Symphony:
                        Adams: El Niño
• Feb. 2-19:      Met Opera: Adams: Nixon in China
                        Pat Nixon cover
• Mar. 10, 12:   Cleveland Orchestra [debut]: 
                        Dvorak: Te Deum; Mahler: Sym. 4
• Mar. 29:         Zankel Hall Recital, NYC:
                        Debussy, Schumann, Mark Grey:
                        Fire Angels (Carnegie Hall   
                        co-commission)
• Apr. 3:           CAL Performances Recital, Berkeley, CA
                       (See March 29)
• Apr. 24:          Kimmel Center, Philadelphia: Jonathan
                        Leshnoff: Hope: An Oratorio (World           
                        Premiere)
• May 19-22:    Atlanta Symphony: Britten: Spring
                        Symphony 

For more information, visit JessicaRivera.com or the IMG Artists web site.